Break in the Line
by ScopesMonkey
Summary: Kira, Dax, Bashir, and O'Brien crash landed on an uninhabited planet. Bashir and O'Brien fall ill, and Kira vanishes.
1. Chapter 1

_Author's Note: _This story is set in the second half of the fourth season.

_Disclaimer: _Star Trek is the legal property of Paramount. I am not making any money off of this and don't pretend that DS9 belongs to me. The story is my own work, however, and can't be used without permission.

1

"Is everyone all right?"

"I can't feel my legs!"

"That's because those are my legs!"

"Oh, thank God."

"Chief?"

"I think my arm is broken."

"All right, don't move. I'll be there as soon as the lights are on. Dax?"

"I'm on it."

There was a shuffling in the darkness of the shuttle cockpit as Dax hauled herself to what were, presumably, her own legs. Bashir squinted, trying to see anything, but it was pitch black inside the tiny craft, blackness that came with having no power in the depths of space, or perhaps the dead of night. They _had_ landed somewhere, after all. By memory, he found one of his medkits and began inching in way, on his knees, to where O'Brien's voice had been coming from.

There were groans and winces all round when the power came back, illuminating the cabin. Bashir hurried over to where the chief lay on the floor, cradling his left arm. He pulled out a medical tricorder and scanned the injured bones.

"You're lucky," the doctor said. "It was a clean break. Now, this is going to hurt…"

He didn't give the chief any time to think about that before gripping his arm and popping the bones back into place. O'Brien yelped and glared at him. Ignoring him, Bashir fished out an osteo regenerator and healed the fractures.

"There," he said. "I'm going to wrap it and I want you to go easy on it for the next few days."

"That may not be possible, Julian," Dax said from behind him. Bashir looked over his shoulder to see both her and Kira seated in the pilots' seats, hard at work at their consoles. "We need to get this shuttle working again. We don't know where we are, and I'd rather we weren't found by the Cardassians or the Jem'Hadar."

"Any idea where we are?" O'Brien asked, pushing himself carefully to his feet.

"I'm working on it," Kira said. "It looks like we landed on an M-class planet, or moon. The atmosphere is a nitrogen-oxygen mix, with some carbon dioxide."

"Well, we couldn't have picked a better place anyway," O'Brien quipped. "What systems are working, Dax?"

"Primary life support, environmental controls, navigational controls, all sensors, and most of the emergency backups. Unfortunately, our engines were damaged."

"No kidding," O'Brien muttered dryly. He sat down at the engineering console.

"How does everyone feel?" Bashir asked.

"Better now," O'Brien said.

"I'm fine, Julian," Dax replied.

"Fine," Kira added.

"Good. At least we're in better shape than the shuttle."

"Is the communications array working?" O'Brien asked.

"No," Dax replied.

"I'll have a look at it," the chief said. Dax nodded distractely.

"Weapons and transporters are off line, but it doesn't look like it will take much work to get them up and running again."

"I can fix the communications array in about a day," the chief said. "I'll go take a look at the engines."

"Right," Kira said. "Julian, you're with me. Let's take a look outside."

Leaving Dax in the cockpit, the major and the doctor stepped out the hatch into the cold darkness. Stars shone down brightly, with no visible moon to lessen their light. It was impossible to see around them; the darkness only solidified into shadows. Bashir couldn't even see his own hand a foot from his face. He squinted, but it didn't help. The night here was complete.

"Smells like there's a river nearby," Kira commented.

Bashir inhaled deeply. The air here was clean and crisp, and his tricorder told him it was an acceptable mixture for the four humanoids in the shuttle. The breeze carried the sharp tang of trees and grasses, and the subtle suggestion of water.

"I smell it, too," Bashir said.

"Well, that's good to know anyway," Kira said. "I doubt we'll find out much more until morning."

Bashir nodded. He followed her back into the shuttle where O'Brien and Dax were discussing the engines.

"We can fix them," O'Brien said. "About four days, though."

Kira looked displeased, but nodded.

"Better than nothing," she conceded.

"We'll start right now," Dax said.

"You'll start tomorrow," Bashir replied quickly. "We've all had a long day, and crash landing on an unknown planet hasn't helped matters. Even if we aren't injured, it's still a shock to our bodies. We all need to rest."

"Someone will need to keep watch," Kira said.

"No need," Dax replied. "Sensors show no settlements or indications of sentinent life. And the shields are working well enough, at eighty percent."

"Activate them," Kira ordered and Dax nodded, turning back to her console. "Well, I'm with Julian on this one. Everyone pick a bunk bed. We'll get started in the morning."

* * *

Kira was awake first the next morning. She glanced at Dax before poking her head into the tiny cabin that Bashir and O'Brien were sharing. Both of them were sleeping soundly, O'Brien almost invisible in the shadows of the bottom bunk. Quietly, she made her way to the cockpit and threaded between the chairs so she could look out the window.

A blue-green sky with wispy white clouds greeted her. She smiled slightly. At least it looked as if it were a nice day. They had landed in a hilly area, it seemed; the landscape rose and fell in gentle rolling slopes all around them. They must be in a valley of sorts, she supposed, because the shuttle wasn't on an angle.

Half-heartedly, she tried the communications array, but it wasn't working. No miracle had occured during the night. Kira shook her head and ordered a raktajino from the replicator, sitting down in one of the pilots' seats.

"Computer," she said and heard the quiet chirp of her voice being acknowledged. "Run a biospectral scan of the air on this planet, and determine the presence of any pathogens or chemicals that would be harmful to Bajorans, Trill, or humans."

"Working. Scan complete. No harmful substances identified."

"Good," Kira said. "Run an analysis on the tectonic nature of the planet and identify any instabilities in the area. Report any fault lines, active or inactive, and identify any possible volcanic sources. Display results on the screen four."

"Acknowledged. Working."

Kira looked up when she heard a sound from the back of the shuttle and Bashir appeared, rubbing his neck.

"You all right, Julian?" she asked.

"Fine, just a little stiff. Apparently, crash landings don't agree with me."

Kira snorted lightly and filled him in on the analyses she had run. Bashir listened while ordering a replicated breakfast for himself. He nodded when she'd finished speaking.

"That's good," he said.

"When Dax and O'Brien are up, you and I will go look for edible plants and game. And fresh water. The less we can use the runabout's power for replicators, the better. And I want to get a look at where we are."

"Good plan," Bashir agreed. Kira smirked at him.

"I'm glad you approve," she said as Dax and O'Brien emerged into the cockpit.

"Approve of what?" Dax asked. Kira explained her plans again, then filled them in on the analyses she had run, leaving the results of the tectonic analysis for Dax to peruse. The group ate their breakfasts together, then Kira and Bashir prepared to leave.

"Dax, if you can find out where we are, that would be helpful," Kira said as she strapped a pack to her back and took a supply of water rations from Bashir.

"I'll do my best," Dax replied and Kira nodded. She checked her tricorder to make sure it was working, then nodded at Bashir.

"Let's go, Julian."

They stepped outside into the bright sunlight. The air had a twinge of morning coolness, and it was crisp and clean. Around them, tall golden grasses shifted in the slight breeze. Kira saw insects darting around the scattered wildflowers, and heard what sounded like birds nearby. She ran a quick scan with her tricorder.

"I'm not picking up any large predators, but we'll be careful. And watch out for snakes."

"Snakes," Bashir muttered.

"Grasslands are perfect habitats for snakes, at least on Bajor. You're a good doctor, Julian, but I'd rather not have to put you to the test."

"I agree," Bashir said dryly. "I think there may be a body of water that way. I think that's southeast. I'm getting elevated hydrogen and oxygen readings on my tricorder from that direction."

"Well, it's a good place to start," Kira said. "Let's go."

They started off in the direction Bashir had indicated, climbing gently uphill as they went. Kira was amazed at how silent it was. The only sounds were of the grass, which was almost knee-high on her in some places, the birds, and the crunching of their booted feet over the ground. Even Bashir, uncharacteristically, was being quiet, as if sensing that any conversation right now would be inappropriate.

The beeping of the tricorder broke the silence and Kira glanced down at her instrument.

"I'm picking up a small lake, about two hundred meters away."

"All right," Bashir said.

They came to a natural ridge that led up toward the lake and followed it until it vanished about twenty meters later. Then they were back on the hillslope, walking with more difficulty. Kira skidded downward slightly, kicking up puffs of fine dirt, then caught herself right away. She glanced up to see Bashir stepping toward her, but shook her head.

"I'm all right," she said and turned to get a look at the terrain around her. A flash of colour caught her eye and she snapped her head toward it. At the base of the hill, someone was walking, back turned to them, dressed in a bright blue sleeveless shirt and tan coloured pants that came to his mid-calf. Shocked coursed through Kira and she lost of her footing again as she cried out:

"Hey!"

She felt one of Bashir's hands wrap around her upper arm and she stopped slidding suddenly.

"Did you see him?" Kira demanded as she regained her balance.

"See who?" Bashir asked.

"That man," she replied, pointing to the bottom of the slope.

He was gone.

"I don't see anyone."

Kira looked around quickly.

"There was someone walking down there, just a second ago."

Bashir pulled out his tricorder and scanned the area.

"I'm not picking up any life signs in this area except for yours and mine."

"I saw him," Kira insisted.

"Major, there's no one else on this planet but the four of us."

"We think," Kira replied. "What if there's a Cardassian or Dominion outpost here we can't detect?"

Bashir looked alarmed.

"Was it a Jem'Hadar?" he asked.

Kira hesitated.

"No," she said. "Nor a Cardassian. Come to think of it, he didn't look like a Vorta either. His skin was too dark." She sighed, shaking her head. "Well, if someone else is here, we'll find them. We can go down and take a look after we get the water."

"All right," Bashir agreed, and she wondered if he even thought it was necessary to examine the bottom of the hill side. She trusted her own senses, but Bashir was pretty sharp, and he hadn't seen anyone.

They regained their path and headed toward the lake, which was just on the other side of the rise, nestled on a high plain between three hills, including the one which they had crested. It was small, more of a pond, really, but the water was bright blue and clear. Both of them stood just staring at it for a moment, watching birds dart around the shore or skim across the waters in the middle of the lake. Kira had never seen water quite that colour before; it reminded her of the sky on Earth. It was the same blazing blue.

Bashir remembered himself long enough to scan it with the tricorder.

"It looks all right, but I'd like to get a sample for a detailed analysis."

"Right," Kira said and they set off, crossing the remaining distance between themselves and the lake. She let Bashir run his analysis before even touching the water. When he told her it was drinkable, she put her hands in, stunned by the cold temperature. Cupping her hands, she took a drink. The water was sweet and pure, so different from the bland, distilled water provided by the station's replicators.

"Let's get some of this bottled up," she said. "Then we can take a look around the bottom of that hill, and get a look at the plants, too."

"All right," Bashir agreed, swinging his pack off of his shoulders and pulling out the empty water flasks inside. Kira fished for her own and they both set to work.

* * *

They searched the bottom of the hill side for any indications that anyone else had been there, but the only thing they found were their own footprints. They had even resorted to shouting for anyone who might have been listening, but only the breeze answered them, rustling through the long grasses. They prowled the nearby hills, looking for habitations and scanned the surrounding area for any underground dwellings or cave systems. There was nothing except the two of them and the shuttle in the distance.

Finally, Kira called a halt to their search. It was obvious no one else was there, no matter what she thought she'd seen. Perhaps her mind had been playing tricks on her after all. She wasn't used to that, but couldn't rule it out, especially not in the fact of the total lack of any other people on the planet.

"Let's see what we can find to eat," she suggested and they set to work. Eventually, as the sun crept higher in the sky, it got warmer and they put their packs and jackets in a little bundle together and worked in shirt sleeves. Bashir was unhappy with the lack of head protection and insisted they put on sunblock and drink lots of water, which Kira was all too happy to do. It was amazing how used to living on DS9 she had become over the past four years. She no longer thought of being exposed to the elements. The station's environmental systems kept everything at a regulated level, so it was always comfortable for the inhabitants, except maybe Garak. Kira had lived so long in caves and outdoors that it stunned her that she could forget about the hardships so easily.

They took a break to eat lunch, packaged meals provided by the shuttle's replicator. Two hours after they'd eaten, Kira called a halt to the day. They'd catalogued numerous edible plants and roots and even some wildlife, and had collected enough to carry back for the day. She supposed they could be the foraging party every day until the shuttle was fixed, if need be.

"Let's head back," she said and Bashir nodded, looking relieved. He was sweating, as was she, and he was far less used to dealing with exposure than she was. They shouldered their packs and carried their jackets. The walk back to the shuttle was quicker than the climb to the lake now that they were on more or less even ground.

Dax and O'Brien were outside when Kira and Bashir returned, working on the engines. Both of them were dirty and sweaty as well, and greeted the sight of food and fresh water enthusiastically.

"Any luck?" Kira asked.

"Not with the engines," Dax replied, "But I did manage to figure out where we are. We're on the second planet of a system the computer has listed only as A-thirty-five-theta. Right where I thought we'd be."

Kira nodded. They'd been passing through that system on the way home from a medical technology conference. Bashir and O'Brien had gone out of professional interest, of course, as they both had reason to see the newest developments in the engineering of medical equipment. Dax had gone out of interest, and the Council of Ministers had requested that Kira attend as an official Bajoran liason. The conference committee had suggested having the conference on Bajor in two years time, and Kira had been there to work out a preliminary deal. It had gone well, and plans had been laid out. In fact, everything had gone well until a small rogue asteroid had glanced off their starboard nacell and sent them careening down onto A-thirty-five-theta-II's surface.

"At least we're still technically in Federation space," Kira sighed.

"Not far enough from the Cardassian border for my liking," O'Brien replied. "There's nothing in this system, so there's no stopping a Cardassian ship from scooping us upwhen we get the distress signal sent."

"How long before we can do that?"

"Should be by tomorrow," Dax said.

"Good. Come on, we all need a break and something to eat."

They used the replicator for what they needed and supplemented the meal with the food Bashir and Kira had gathered. As they ate, Kira told them about the lake, and also about having seen someone. Dax and O'Brien listened with interest, and seemed disappointed when Kira reported that they hadn't found any trace of the person.

"I was hoping our scans had been wrong," Dax admitted. "As unlikely as that would be."

"Unless they're living underground for some reason, I think I was just seeing things," Kira said, although she didn't like admitting that. "And there doesn't seem to be any reason to be living underground."

"This place doesn't seem particularly dangerous," O'Brien agreed.

"Well, if there is someone here, they're bound to stumble across us. I'm sure we make a very visible break in the landscape. Otherwise, we'll have just have to fix our communications system or our engines," Dax said.

"Speaking of which, I think we have a couple hours of daylight left," O'Brien said as they finished up their meals. "We should use it to do what we can on those engines."

"Anything I can do, Chief?" Kira asked.

"You had experience with communications equipment in the resistance, right, Major?"

"Yes."

"Take a look at the communications relay."

"What about me?" Bashir asked.

O'Brien looked at a loss and glanced at Dax. She shook her head after a moment, looking at Kira. The Major thought hard for a moment.

"Be ready in case any of us gets hurt," she suggested. "Sorry, Julian, I don't think there's much you can do here. Unless you're well versed in warp field systems."

"Not especially," Bashir said. "All right, I'll find something to do."

Kira nodded and Dax and O'Brien left the shuttle. Bashir vanished into the back, toward the tiny crew cabins, and the major set to work on the shuttle's battered communications array.


	2. Chapter 2

Bashir awoke the next morning, feeling like he had hardly slept at all. He buried his face in his pillow to stifle a groan, then rubbed the back of his neck. Although he hadn't woken up at all during the night, he felt like he'd been sleeping on rocks. Perhaps, he supposed, it was because his body knew it was supposed to have been back in its own bed on Deep Space Nine. And all the climbing and scrambling he'd done the day before hadn't helped matters. He was glad he'd stretched before going to bed, or else he would really be regretting it now.

"Julian," O'Brien's voice came from below him. "Julian, you awake?"

With a frown, Bashir pushed himself onto his forearms. O'Brien's voice sounded quieter than normal, weaker. Bashir leaned over the side of his bunk, but couldn't see his friend in the shadows.

"Yes, I'm awake. Are you all right?"

"I don't think so," O'Brien said and Bashir was instantly fully awake, swinging himself down from the top bunk.

"What's the matter?"

"I'm boiling," O'Brien said. "It's not the environmental controls, is it?"

"No, I feel fine," Bashir replied.

"I was afraid of that," his friend muttered.

"Computer lights," Bashir commanded and snagged the medkit from its storage niche in the wall. He sat down on O'Brien's bunk and put a thermometer on the other man's forehead. While that ran its scan, Bashir pulled out a medical tricorder and ran it over O'Brien.

"I know that look," O'Brien said.

"What look?" Bashir asked.

"That 'he's-in-trouble' look."

"You have a temperature of thirty-eight-point-eight. You definitely have a fever. But I can't tell why. The problem is that, here, it could be anything."

"You know just how to reassure a man," O'Brien said.

"Lie still, I'm going to take a sample of your blood to analyze. That should give us the answers."

He took out a syringe and drew a vial of blood. O'Brien winced, even though Bashir knew it didn't hurt. Most people's brains told them it did anyway. Without a proper medical lab, he set to work analyzing it with the tricorder.

"This might take awhile. I'm going to wake up the others and get you some water and something to drink."

"Sure," O'Brien said, his voice tired.

Bashir tapped his combadge.

"Bashir to Kira and Dax. Wake up."

There was a moment of silence, then Kira's voice, retaining only the slightest hint of sleep, answered:

"We're up. What is it, Julian?"

"Miles is sick. I need your help."

"How sick?" Kira demanded.

"Sick enough," Bashir replied.

Within two minutes, the women were dressed and crowded into the small cabin.

"Dax, can you get him some water and some food? Something bland, preferably. Major, I don't know what's making him sick yet. Without a medlab, I'm going to have to do the analysis myself, so it's going to take longer."

"Keep me informed," Kira replied. "How do you feel, Chief?"

"Just tired and sore, really," O'Brien replied.

"Hopefully it's a simple infection I can treat with antibiotics or antivirals. But I don't think he should be working on the shuttle in this condition."

"Agreed," Kira said, then held up a hand when O'Brien started to protest. "Dax and I can finish the communications array and you can talk us through the engines. We might not even need the engines if we can get a ship's attention. You need to get better, not worse."

"All right," O'Brien said as Dax returned. Bashir took the food and gave it to O'Brien.

"And you need to eat. Doctor's orders."

"After we're done with the communications array, I'll go out for some more food and water," Kira said. "Julian, I want you to stay here."

"Understood," Bashir replied.

The major turned to Dax.

"We'll get started right after we eat," she said.

"Right. Julian, what do you want for breakfast?"

"What's on the menu?"

"Food from yesterday with one replicator ration."

Bashir waffled between scones and jam or raktajino and finally decided on the coffee and the local plant and animal life as his meal. Kira and Dax vanished toward the cockpit, Dax returning a few minutes later with Bashir's breakfast. She gave it to the doctor, then squeezed O'Brien's arm, smiling at him.

"We want you back on your feet tomorrow, Chief. This isn't a vacation," she teased.

O'Brien gave her a pale smile.

"I'll do my best," he promised.

"Let us know what you find, Julian," Dax said. Bashir nodded and she left. He turned to his breakfast and his work, beginning a detailed scan of the chief's blood between bites.

* * *

"Try it now," Kira said.

"Got it!" Dax replied and Kira scrambled out from the access hatch in which she had been working. "I'm sending out a general distress signal right now."

"How long until it reaches the station?"

"Five or six days," Dax said.

Kira put a hand on her forehead and sighed.

"I hope Julian can find something to help the chief before then," she said.

"Me, too," Dax replied.

"Let's get started on the engines," Kira said. "I'll go out for food in about an hour."

Dax helped Kira to her feet and the two women turned to head toward the engine compartment when Bashir stepped into the cockpit. Kira and Dax stopped short at the expression on the doctor's face; Bashir looked as if he had known all the suffering and sorrow in the galaxy.

"Julian, what is it?" Dax asked.

"I've isolated the virus that's making Miles ill," the doctor replied. "It's a naturally occurring virus on this planet."

"Why didn't the computer's sensors pick it up?" Kira asked.

Bashir shrugged.

"It's endemic, and the computer would have no prior record of it. This planet hasn't ever been explored beyond a cursory orbital scan."

"Is he going to be all right?" Dax asked.

"I hope so," Bashir said with a heartfelt sigh. "I've given him a broad spectrum antiviral in hopes of knocking it out or at least wearing it down until I can come up with a more specific treatment."

"Then what's the matter?"

"I did some testing on it, and I've found that it shouldn't affect either of you. It doesn't seem compatible with Trill or Bajoran DNA. I suspect that your systems have already purged it, but I'd like to run some blood samples for both of you. However, it is compatible with human DNA. I tested myself. It's already in my system."

Kira and Dax stared at him for a moment, then Kira shook her head.

"If you have it, then why aren't you sick yet?" she demanded.

"Miles and I have different immune systems," Bashir replied. "It's likely his is more susceptible to this than mine. Or it could be a combination of factors, I just don't know yet. I've given myself the same antiviral treatment, but chances are good that I'm going to get sick, too."

"Is it fatal?" Kira asked and noticed the smallest of winces on Bashir's face. She knew it was hard for him to hear that question, but she needed the answer.

"I don't know," he replied. "Most viruses aren't, and a healthy human adult can fight it off eventually. But I've barely had a chance to study this one, and it's attacking a completely foreign host. Right now, there's no telling what could happen. We could both be fine, or dead, by tomorrow."

"Well we need you both alive," Kira said firmly. "We just fixed the communications array and we've sent out a distress signal. Dax thinks it may take five or six days to reach DS9, but, with any luck, we'll get the attention of a Federation vessel in closer range. Keep working on this, Doctor. I have no intention of losing either of you."

"Neither do I," Bashir assured her. "I'll do what I can."

"Good. Come on, Jadzia, the sooner we fix those engines, the better."

* * *

Just over an hour later, Kira deposited her pack under the shade of a tree and took out a water flask, clipping it to her belt. She had left her uniform jacket behind, and her communicator was pinned to her short-sleeved shirt. Conscientiously, she put on sunblock; Bashir had insisted they all wear it while outside. With the chief sick and the doctor infected, she didn't want to take any chances on doing anything detrimental to herself.

She pulled a bag from her pack and set to work collecting the edible plants she and Bashir had identified the day before. It was really quite peaceful with no one around. A gentle breeze blew through the grasses and past her, cooling her enough to make the task tolerable. The sun shone down, but the occasional wispy cloud passed over it, providing her with momentary shade. Kira worked easily in the company of the small sounds made by creatures going about their lives around her. She saw several small animals, perhaps the Bajoran equivalent of rodents, burrowing in the ground. Hunting wasn't great around here; although it was open grassland, it didn't seem to support the same kind of grazing animals she was used to seeing. There didn't seem to be any large predators either. But some of the smaller animals were decent prey, at least for the four stranded officers.

When she had finished, she stored the food in her pack and took out the empty water flasks. She left her pack in the shade and headed up the hill toward the small lake again. With no one around, she wasn't worried about losing it. The worst that could happen was some small animal would try and get inside.

Kira crested the hill and approached the lake. The colours in the water still took her breath away and she took the time to appreciate them, reflecting on how Bareil would have loved a place like this. It wasn't his gardens, but he would have enjoyed the quiet, wild beauty. For a moment, she missed him, but in a bittersweet way, and the memory of his peace and deep love made her smile to herself.

She filled the flasks and washed her face and arms in the cold water, making a mental note to reapply her sunblock when she returned to her pack. She rested for a moment, crouching at the lake's shore, and looked around. She wondered why the Federation had never considered this world for colonization. It was beautiful here. Then she thought of the virus that had infected O'Brien and Bashir and supposed it was better this place was untouched. It would have been a catastrophe landing a large number of humans here only to have them all fall ill. It was bad enough with only two of them sick.

She picked up the flasks and stood, heading back down the hill. When Kira came to the place where she thought she'd seen that man, she paused, looking around carefully. There was nothing below here but the small copses of short trees, the golden grass, the rolling hills. She sighed, hesitated, then put down the flasks. Carefully, she edged her way down to where she had fallen the day before, making sure to keep her footing this time. Again, she looked around but saw nothing.

With a sigh, Kira heaved herself back toward the path and felt the dirt give way beneath her right foot. She scrambled, throwing herself down, but began to slide anyway. Cursing, Kira threw herself sideways, landing on her back diagonal to the hill and sat still for a moment, making sure she had her balance back. When she was certain she wasn't going anywhere, she sat up slowly.

The view below her nearly made her lose her balance again.

Instead of the empty, rolling hills, she was greeted by the site of obviously tended fields following the contours of the slopes. The copses of trees were still there, some bigger, some smaller, providing shade and soil stabilization to the fields. The crops looked like some kind of fruit, perhaps vineyards. In the distance, she could see people moving between the rows of green, stopping every so often.

Almost directly below her, near the trees where her pack should have been, were several people working. From the looks of it, they were surveying the land and running some sort of analysis. Several of them were taking tricorder readings, and a few of them were comparing their findings.

"Hey!" Kira shouted and the work below her stopped. Everyone turned, some of them shading their eyes against the sun. Kira pushed herself to her feet and began inching her way down the hill as several members of the group began jogging toward her. As they grew closer, she could see that one of the men was Bajoran. The other two, a man and a woman, looked human, but they could have been Betazoid for all she knew.

They reached her and helped her down.

"Who are you?" the Bajoran man asked.

"My name is Kira Nerys," she replied. "I'm the first officer on Deep Space Nine. I crash landed with a group of my officers just over those hills there, and two of them are ill. We need help."

The Bajoran man stared at her.

"_Kira_ Nerys?" he asked.

"That's right. Major Kira Nerys."

The Bajoran man and the possibly human woman exchanged looks, the woman raising one pale eyebrow.

"I think, Major," the Bajoran man said, "That you had better come with us."

* * *

Dax tapped her combadge.

"Try it now, Julian," she said.

For a moment, then was nothing, then Bashir's voice said:

"They're back on line."

Dax nodded, feeling relief flood through her. One down, two to go. Unfortunately, the one part of the engines they had fixed was maneuvering thrusters, which would be useless until they got the impulse engines working at very least.

"Good. Take a break. I need to go over the chief's notes for the impulse engines."

"Right. Bashir out."

Dax tapped her combadge off and picked up the PADD, frowning to herself. She knew Bashir well, and she could tell from his voice that he was struggling. He was very good at hiding it, but the hint of fatigue was there. He had been helping her as much as he could since Kira had gone out foraging, and trying to find a cure or a treatment for the virus that had infected him and O'Brien. The antiviral treatment he had tried on O'Brien seemed ineffective so far; the chief's fever hadn't gone down. On the other hand, it hadn't gone up, and Dax supposed that was a blessing.

Bashir appeared in the engine room and Dax looked up from her PADD. He looked all right, she thought; the fatigue was only beginning to show under his eyes. She wondered how he felt, but doubted he'd tell the whole truth if she asked.

"I'm getting worried about Kira," he said. "She should be back by now."

Dax frowned.

"Computer, time," she said.

"The time is fifteen hundred thirty-one hours."

Dax tapped her combadge.

"Dax to Kira," she said.

There was no response. She tapped her badge again.

"Dax to Kira. Nerys, can you hear me?"

When she received no reply for the second time, she looked up at Bashir.

"You try," she said.

He did, and got the same results she had. They exchanged a worried look.

"Computer, lock onto Major Kira's combadge and transport her back to the shuttle."

"Unable to comply," the computer replied. "Major Kira's combadge cannot be detected."

Dax felt alarm race through her, and saw the same mirrored on Bashir's face.

"One of us needs to go look for her," she said.

"I'll go," Bashir said. "I know the terrain out there at least a little, and you can beam me back if you need to. You know more about the engines than I do anyway."

Dax hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

"All right, but take water with you and stay in contact with me. I know you're getting sick, and if something happened to Nerys, I don't want it to happen to you."

Bashir nodded grimly.

"I'll be careful," he promised, then turned to leave the engine room. On impulse, Dax grabbed his hand and Bashir looked over his shoulder. She squeezed his hand and he squeezed back, then gave her a nod and left. Dax watched him go, then looked back down at the PADD, tapping her combadge again.

"Dax to O'Brien. We've got thrusters working again, and I'm ready to get started on the impulse engines. Are you up for a hands on training exercise?"

Although his voice was weak, Dax could hear the smile in O'Brien's voice as he replied:

"Sure thing, Commander. Let's see how much that host of yours who was an engineer actually taught you."


	3. Chapter 3

Bashir had replicated himself a hat and left his uniform jacket behind. He walked slowly, scanning the area constantly with his tricorder, hoping to pick up some indication that Kira was there. His slow speed wasn't just to ensure he didn't miss anything. Dax was right: he was getting sick. His temperature was higher than it should have been, but it hadn't passed the fever mark yet. He supposed it would soon. He had been hoping that his genetic enhancements would keep him from getting ill, but whatever this virus was, it didn't seem bothered by his strong immune system. He knew that the reason he'd made it this long was because of that enhanced immune system.

He sighed, lowering the tricorder.

"Kira!" he yelled. "Nerys, can you hear me?"

Nothing but silence met his cries. He shook his head and kept going. He saw her pack, then, in the shade of some trees and made his way over to it, crouching down. He set the tricorder aside and opened the pack. Inside, there was a sack of gathered foods and the water flasks were gone. Bashir stood, turning to face the hills, and looked up toward the lake. He spotted the abandoned water flasks immediately, the white and blue standing out sharply against the golden and brown of the hills.

Bashir made his way up the hill to the flasks and looked around. There were footprints all around, both his and hers from the day before, but also skid marks where she'd slid from the path. Bashir frowned, crouching down. It looked as if the skid marks she'd left the day before were covered with fresher ones. Had she come back here and fallen again? To his right, he could see marks in the ground that hadn't been made by her fall the previous day.

Carefully, Bashir eased himself down to the level of the fresh prints and examined them. It looked as though she'd either jumped or moved from the path of her slide. Bashir looked around, but saw no evidence of the missing major. He turned himself around carefully so that he could see the bottom of the slope, but couldn't see her anywhere. If she had fallen, she would have rolled down the hill, unless she'd caught herself. And if she caught herself, she should be somewhere nearby.

He made his way back to the path and looked around again.

"Kira! Major!" he shouted to the breeze. When there was no reply, he picked up the flasks and struggled to the top of the hill. It was becoming harder and harder to exert himself like this. He felt like he needed a nap, but he knew if he lay down in the sun, he'd fall asleep and probably never wake up.

He headed slowly toward the small lake, hoping to see a red uniform standing out against the blue waters, but he was still alone. Bashir sat down on the lake shore with a sigh and consulted his tricorder again. The only humanoid readings it gave him were his own. He stayed there a few minutes, then heaved himself to his feet and headed back down to the tree and Kira's abandoned pack. He sat down in the shade, breathing hard, feeling his head swim. Bashir closed his eyes, leaning back against the trunk of a tree, and let himself relax for a few minutes. The thought of walking back to the shuttle seemed too daunting to consider, so he picked up Kira's pack and the water flasks and tapped his combadge.

"Bashir to computer, one to beam back to the shuttle. Energize."

* * *

Dax looked up quickly when the transporter engaged and someone beamed in. For a moment, she believed Bashir had found Kira, but her heart sank when she saw it was Bashir alone, carrying Kira's pack and the water flasks she'd gone out with. Bashir himself looked worse for the wear. The circles under his eyes were becoming more pronounced and his normally darker skin looked pale.

"Julian, what happened?"

He held up the pack as if it were an explanation.

"I found her things," he replied. "But I couldn't find her. It's as if she just vanished."

Dax wanted to say that people didn't just vanish, but held her tongue.

"Come on, you need to sit down. Tell me what you found."

Bashir took one of the four empty seats in the shuttle's cockpit and gratefully accepted a cup of cool water for Dax. She sat opposite him and listened as he explained everything to her. When he was finished, she sat silent for a moment, then asked:

"Is it possible that there are people here and they beamed her away?"

Bashir shook his head.

"I don't think so. I didn't find any residual transporter traces. And why would they beam her away and not me? Or all of us?"

"Some sort of break in the time line, then," Dax suggested.

"I didn't find any evidence of residual chronoton activity. I don't know what happened, Jadzia. She's just gone."

Dax pursed her lips.

"Well, we can't give up on her, but we need to fix the engines. And you need to rest. I want you to do another scan of yourself. You look worse."

"I _am_ worse," Bashir said and Dax was surprised he'd admitted it.

"Then you need to rest first and keep working on finding some way to treat this virus. I'll keep working on the engines."

"What about Kira?" Bashir asked.

"I'll go out in a couple of hours and look around myself," she said. "But I'm not sure what else I can do that you couldn't. If she's not here, she's not here. And we're still here and you and Miles need to get to a proper sickbay."

"We can't just abandon her!" Bashir protested.

"I don't intend to," Dax replied. "But I know what decision Kira would make if our positions were reversed. Go get some rest now, Julian. That's an order."

* * *

Dax left two hours later with some misgivings. She wasn't happy about leaving Bashir and O'Brien alone, but at least Bashir had gotten some sleep. O'Brien's condition hadn't changed; he was still running a fever and had spent most of the day resting when he hadn't been helping her with engine repairs.

Bashir had made her get a hat from the replicator, even though Dax wanted to conserve the shuttle's power. She left her jacket behind as he had done and ventured off into the rolling hills, following the directions Bashir had programmed into her tricorder. It was silent and still outside, and Dax had no idea what she'd accomplish, but she was a science officer and perhaps she'd find clues to Kira's disappearance that Bashir hadn't.

She hiked up to where Bashir had found evidence of Kira's fall on the hill and looked around. There was nothing around her except the empty landscape. Dax called for Kira a few times without expecting an answer, then began to scan the area, moving carefully. She was getting strange energy readings here for an area that was so geologically stable. There were no fault lines running through here, but the area seemed to be giving off indications that, tectonically speaking, something was going on. Dax studied the readings, wondering what they were coming from. There were no indications of subterranean features. The geologic parent material here was largely sand; Dax suspected this may have once been a desert. The climate had obviously changed, becoming more temperate, and the increased rainfall had brought vegetation, which had stabilized ancient dunes into hills. Because it was sand, however, not any sort of stone, there were no caves or tunnels. She wondered if there could be an artificial energy source somewhere that was confusing the readings she was getting. Just to be sure, she recalibrated the tricorder to account for any radiation or signals the shuttle was giving off, but it made no difference.

Dax prowled the area but could find no firm source for the energy readings she was getting, nor any peaks or low spots that may hold some clue as to where Kira went. She tried to analyze if the energy signature had any chronoton particles, but the results were inconclusive. The readings were too unusual for her small tricorder to make any sense of them.

With a sigh, she snapped the instrument shut and looked around again. She was certain now that these unusual energy readings had something to do with Kira's disappearance. There were no other people or any large predators around, so Kira hadn't been hauled off.

The shuttle had its maneuvering thrusters, which meant she could move it to its position about a kilometer away to this area. It probably wouldn't do any good, but she would be closer to the source of Kira's disappearance and the energy anomaly without having to leave the shuttle for long periods of time. She had no desire to leave O'Brien and Bashir to their own devices. If anything happened to them because she'd been out searching for Kira, she knew she could never forgive herself. Sisko might not, either. One officer's life was not exchangeable for two officer's lives. Three, if she counted her own.

She began the short hike back the shuttle. The sun was already beginning to set, nearly touching the horizon, and long blue-purple shadows stretched across the ground around her. Her own shadow bobbed as she walked along, rippled by the grass.

Dax climbed back into the shuttle, which was silent. She headed toward the cockpit immediately, pulling off her hat, and found Bashir seated at the science console, a heavy blanket drawn around his shoulders. He looked up when she came in and gave her a feeble smile. Dax was alarmed at how pale he was, how pronounced the black circles under his eyes were.

"Julian," she said, crossing the floor to him.

"Didn't find her?" he asked in a weak voice.

Dax shook her head.

"No, I found some anomalous energy readings I have to analyze," she said quickly, then put a hand on his forehead. "You're burning up. What's your temperature?"

"It was thirty-eight-point-five when I last took it," he said. She noticed he was shivering under his blanket.

"When was that?" she demanded.

"About half an hour ago," he replied. "I've been trying to work on a treatment but haven't gotten anywhere."

"How's Miles?"

"The same."

"You need to sleep," Dax said. "Have you been working the whole time I was gone?" Bashir nodded. "I thought so. Come on."

"I need to work on this," Bashir replied.

"You need to rest, Julian," she said and helped him to his feet. He leaned against her and she wrapped one arm around his shoulders, helping back to the cabin he and O'Brien were sharing. She settled him into the one of the two chairs beside the small table. She went into her cabin, retrieved the mattress Kira had slept on, and hauled it into the other crew quarters, putting it on the floor.

"What are you doing?" Bashir asked.

"When Kira gets back, we'll give it back to her. I'm not risking you climbing in and out of that top bunk in this condition," she explained as she pulled his mattress down and put it on top of Kira's. "Come on."

Bashir rose unsteadily to his feet, picking something up from the table, and crawled onto the bed. Jadzia gave him his blankets, then collected Kira's in case either man needed them. Bashir took one, huddling under it.

"Here," he said weakly, pressing two data chips into her hands.

"What's this?" Dax asked.

"One is for Keiko," Bashir said. "From Miles. The other is for my friend Shannon."

Dax took them, then pushed a strand of damp hair from Bashir's forehead.

"Whatever either of you need to say to them, you'll say it in person," she told him firmly.

Bashir gave her a frail half-smile.

"Just in case," he said.

"Go to sleep, Julian," she said. "I'll leave some water on the table."

He nodded, sinking down onto the mattresses and Dax leaned down to give him a kiss on the forehead. He was asleep almost as soon as he'd closed his eyes.

Dax stood in the middle of the tiny room, chewing her lower lip thoughtfully. She was worried, more worried than she had been in a long time. O'Brien and Bashir desperately needed to be off this planet in a proper sickbay, but Kira needed to be found. She hoped to hell someone picked up their message soon.

Shaking her head to clear it, she headed back to the flight deck. There was no guarantee anyone would get the message before it reached Deep Space Nine, so their only hope might be the engines. Even if the station got the message in five days, it would still take them about two days to get out here, presuming the _Defiant_ was in dock, not away from the station. Repairing the engines still seemed to be her best bet. And she still wanted to move the shuttle, tonight. She needed to eat, though, before she did anything else, so she found Kira's pack and began pulling out the foraged food and the flasks of fresh water.


	4. Chapter 4

"Who are you?" Kira demanded. "And where did you come from?"

"My name is Renoura Pal," the Bajoran man replied. "This is Taima Holl," he said, indicating the woman, "And Anouar Massai."

The human man, Massai, gave her a serious nod. He was tall and very dark skinned, with eyes so dark they seemed to have no irises. The woman, whom Kira suspected was a Betazoid, given her name, extended her hand. Bewildered, Kira shook it.

"And the question is," Renoura continued. "Where did you come from? You certainly don't look familiar, and we haven't had any ships land recently. At least not that I know of."

"My ship crash landed here," Kira said. "About a kilometer from here, that way." She pointed back in the direction of the shuttle.

"When?" Holl asked.

"About two days ago."

"We'd better go see the captain," Holl said to her colleagues.

"Agreed," Renoura said. "Can you come with us, Major?"

"Wait, what captain?"

"It would be easier to explain when we got there," Renoura assured her. "It's not far, and we can get a transport, even out here."

Confused, and angry at the confusion, Kira followed them back to the rest of their group. Holl simply told them they were going to see the captain and told them to keep working. The rest of them, although obviously curious, went back to their duties. Massai reached up and tapped a finger behind his right ear.

"Anouar to dispatch. We have four to beam back. And we need to see the captain." His voice was deep and musical, as if to match his presence.

"This is dispatch. Acknowledged. I'll let her know."

Kira felt the familiar sensation of a transporter wash over her, but it sounded slightly different than the Federation and Cardassian technology she was used to.

They rematerialized and Kira gaped at her surroundings. They had appeared in the center of a bustling building lobby, on what appeared to be a central transporter pad. Around them, people of all races were going about their business, crossing the tiled floor of the lobby of whatever building they were in, conferring with each other or talking to what appeared to be thin air – probably com conversations. A few people took notice of the returning crew, but paid little attention to them. Kira tried to get some sense of where she was. Outside the generous windows, she could see a busy street with pedestrians making their way below small shuttle vehicles. In the distance, she could see other buildings, all of which were brightly coloured, as if to defy the dullness of the surrounding landscape. She caught a glimpse of what appeared to be a public transport: a series of connected cars sailing past quickly.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"You're in Negava," a woman replied and Kira turned her attention back to the lobby. A Bajoran woman, followed by two staff members, was approaching them, walking quickly and confidently across the tiled floor. "Welcome."

"Thank you," Kira managed, and stepped down from the transporter pad at a gesture from Renoura. "Who are you?"

"My name is Captain Kira Trenlei," the other woman replied.

"And this," Renoura said, indicating the major, "Is Major Kira Nerys."

Trenlei's eyebrows rose quickly and she looked from Kira to Renoura then back again.

"Major Kira Nerys?" she said.

"That's right," Kira replied. "I don't remember ever having met another Kira named Trenlei."

"We've never met before," Trenlei said with certainty. "And there's no way you could remember me. But I had a great-great grandmother named Kira Nerys who was a major in the Bajoran militia."

"_What_?" Kira demanded. "Where the hell am I?"

"I think the precise question is when the hell are you?" Holl said and Kira snapped her attention to the Betazoid woman. "What is today's stardate for you?"

"Four-five-four-one-one-point-zero," Kira replied.

Holl and Massai nodded.

"As we suspected, Captain, there is some sort of temporal breach in those hills. Major, the current stardate where and when we are right now is six-six-two-three-four-four-point-seven."

Kira stared at the Betazoid.

"That's over two hundred years in the future!" she said.

"Yes," Holl replied.

"How the hell did that happen?" Kira said. "We didn't detect any temporal anomalies in the area!"

"Perhaps, Major, you could come with me and we should talk," Trenlei said. "Taima, you're with us. Pal, arrange for some quarters for the major. Anouar, you'd better get back to the site. They're going to need you there."

"Yes, sir," Massai replied and stepped back onto the transporter pad. Renoura nodded at the captain and gestured to one of her aids, who went with him.

"We'll go to my office, Major," Trenlei said. "I think you'll be more comfortable there. Come."

* * *

The captain's office was a large airy room with high, arching windows that over looked the city, facing a river. The floor was tiled here as well, but the tiles had flowing blue and green designs on them, which looked as if they were inspired by Bajoran tradition. The walls were painted a warm off-white, and the curtains that were pulled back from the window panes were a sheer dusky blue. The windows were all open, letting in the fresh air, and the breeze that seemed omnipresent in this area kept the air from becoming oppressive.

One half of the office was taken up by what was obviously Trenlei's workspace: a polished wooden desk that had been stained a deep mahogany, computer terminals, PADDs and a raised area just off to the left of the desk. Kira had no idea what that was for.

The other half of the office was for relaxing or less formal meetings. There was a two person couch and two chairs, all facing each other, grouped around a low wooden table of the same kind and colour as Trenlei's desk. Beside each seat was a small circular wooden table.

"Chen," Trenlei said, turning to her remaining aid, a young human man with black hair and pale brown skin, "Get us some tea and something to eat. Is green tea all right with you, Major?"

"I've never had it," Kira said.

"Green tea, then," Trenlei said to Chen. "Moba fruit and honey biscuits, I think."

"Yes, sir," Chen said and left the office. The captain gestured for Kira and Holl to take a seat and they did. Kira leaned forward, clasping her hands.

"I want to know what's going on," she said.

"I'm sure you do," Trenlei replied. "But first, I need to know something from you. How did you get to this planet and why are you here?"

"I crash landed two days ago with three members of my crew. Our shuttle isn't far from here– at least, it isn't far from where Holl and her crew are working."

"Do you have any humans in your group?" Trenlei asked.

Kira nodded.

"Yes. Two."

"Damn!" the captain swore and stood, putting one hand on her forehead and pacing the short distance between her chair and the couch Holl was occupying. "I was afraid of that. This planet has a native virus that humans are susceptible to. If they aren't already sick, they're going to be."

"They both are," Kira said grimly. "But you obviously have humans here."

Trenlei nodded and Holl spoke.

"Before we colonized the planet, we realized the virus would be detrimental to humans, and to some other races, Betazoids included. The first colonists to land here were medical scientists and doctors, mostly Bajoran and Vulcan, and they developed a vaccine for those who were susceptible. Eventually, we were able to figure out how to neutralize the virus without upsetting any ecological balance."

"Wait, how long have you been here?" Kira asked.

"The planet was first settled about ninety years ago," Trenlei replied. "Negava was established seventy-six years ago."

"And how did I get from my time to yours?"

"There's some sort of anomaly in the area you appeared in, Major," Holl said. "That's why my team is out there. We're trying to isolate its cause and figure out how to activate it. We suspected it would cause breaches in the time line, but we weren't certain until you walked through. How did you get here?"

"I just– slipped on the hill," Kira said, shaking her head. "I didn't know there was any anomaly there."

"We've known something was strange since we established Negava, which is why it's here and not further east," Trenlei said. "But we've never been able to figure out exactly what it is, or how it works."

Chen came back in with the tea and food and left again at a nod from Trenlei. The captain poured a cup for each of them and Kira accepted hers gratefully, intrigued by the sharp, unfamiliar aroma. She took some of the fruit and biscuits as well, glad to have real food instead of raw, foraged plants and replicator rations.

"If you have a vaccine for humans, I need to get back to my shuttle with it," Kira said.

"The problem is getting you back, Major," Holl said and Kira looked at her quickly. "Now we know what it is, but now how it works."

"I could go back the same way I came," Kira said.

"We can try, but it might not work. There's no guarantee that the anomaly is stable or that it works both ways. We don't even know if it has specific focal points, or if it shifts through the area. The whole area is affected by anomalous energy readings, so cross over points could vanish within moments of appearing."

"We have to try," Kira insisted.

"I'm inclined to agree," Trenlei said.

"Captain, Temporal Investigations–" Holl started.

"To hell with Temporal Investigations," Trenlei said. "Starfleet stationed me here to make decisions on Starfleet matters in this sector."

"She's Bajoran militia," Holl pointed out.

"Which eventually becomes part of Starfleet. Pretend you didn't hear that," she added, glancing at Kira. "Are your crew members Bajoran or Starfleet?"

"Starfleet. We're stationed on Deep Space Nine. My chief medical officer, Doctor Bashir, and my chief of operations, Miles O'Brien, are the ones who are sick."

Trenlei raised her eyebrows.

"Deep Space Nine?" she asked.

"Yes. Why?"

"You know the Emissary."

Kira nodded.

"Captain Sisko. Yes."

Trenlei opened her mouth to say something, then seemed to think better of it and shut it again.

"I suppose I shouldn't ask too many questions," she said. "Computer, display map of the area in which Professor Holl's crew is currently working."

Kira was startled when a holographic display leapt to life from a small, circular indentation in the table she had taken to be decorative. The three-dimensional landscape display rotated toward her, with a small red circle indicating the work party.

"Can you show me where your shuttle is?" Trenlei asked.

Kira looked for the lake to orient herself, then found the landing site and indicated it to the captain.

"Just outside the border of our study area," Holl confirmed when Trenlei glanced at her. "I can see why you went inside that area, Major, with the lake as a source of fresh water."

"There isn't anything in the lake that can make them sicker, is there?" Kira asked.

Holl shook her head.

"No, that water's perfectly safe."

"Good," Kira muttered, leaning back in the plush arm chair. At least something had worked out right. She was more worried than she wanted to admit even to herself about how Bashir and O'Brien were faring. She looked at Trenlei - her own descendent, apparently – and asked: "Is this virus fatal if it goes untreated?"

"I don't know. I'm not a doctor. And we vaccinated everyone who needed to be vaccinated before they were allowed onto the surface."

Kira sighed inwardly. Of course, that made sense. There was no point exposing anyone unnecessarily, and all their tests had probably been strictly controlled. That didn't change the reality for Bashir and O'Brien, though. If the doctor didn't come up with something and she couldn't get back, she was afraid the worst could happen. It might only be Dax who returned to the station.

"Make preparations to go back," Trenlei said to Holl, who nodded. "And find Healer Talan and bring her along. She's one of the only ones left who helped developed the vaccine."

"Yes, sir," Holl agreed and left the office after finishing her tea quickly. That left both Kiras alone. Kira wondered if she should feel more curious than she did, but the urgency of the situation was overriding any desire she had to learn more about this woman.

"How did you come to crash here?" Trenlei asked.

"We were glanced by a meteor," Kira replied. "It disabled our engines and we had no choice but to land." She paused. "Shouldn't that have been in your records when you settled this place? Unless none of us got off and no one ever found us."

"I doubt that," Trenlei replied, "Because there would have been some indication of your ship, even after a hundred and some odd years. I don't know if any information about you is listed in Starfleet's historical records. I'm only thirty-nine, Major, and I was assigned here four years ago when I was promoted to captain. I'm not one of the original colonists. There aren't many of them left as it is. Some of the Vulcans, but ninety years is still a long time, and not everyone who came here at first ended up staying."

Kira nodded. She should have thought of Trenlei's age, she supposed. Of course Trenlei would have no reason to examine the pre-settlement data. She was here, in an established city, to do a job assigned to her by Starfleet. Not to set up the colony itself.

"Holl to Kira," a voice said from the air and Kira reached for her combadge, remembering herself halfway. Trenlei gave her a wry smile that reminded Kira of an expression she'd seen many times in the mirror, and the other woman tapped her neck just behind her right ear.

"Kira here," she replied.

"Captain, I've spoken to Healer Talan and she's getting ready to join us. We'll be in the transporter in the lobby in ten minutes."

"Good work, Taima," Trenlei replied. "We'll be there shortly. Kira out."

She tapped her neck again and turned back to the table.

"Computer, display off," she said and the holographic projection of the landscape vanished. "Come on," she said to Kira. "We don't have any time to lose. Quite literally."

Kira nodded, rising from her seat and following her Starfleet captain descendant from the office.

* * *

Kira and Trenlei met with Holl and Talan at the transporter pad. Talan was an elderly Vulcan woman, although she had very few signs of age on her face. She wore her long, grey hair pinned back at the base of her skull and was dressed in the traditional Vulcan robes.

"Talan, this is Major Kira Nerys. Major, Healer Talan," Holl introduced them. Talan gave Kira a deep nod, which Kira returned curtly.

"Professor Holl has explained your situation to me, Major," the Vulcan woman said. "There are a few questions I must ask you before we leave."

"Of course," Kira replied.

"How long have your two human crew members been ill?"

"Since this morning."

"What are their symptoms?"

"Fever, fatigue, and Doctor Bashir was complaining of muscle pain yesterday morning."

"How is their general health?"

"Good as far as I know," Kira replied. "But I'm not a doctor."

"What treatments has Doctor Bashir administered?"

"He gave himself and the chief an antiviral and confined the chief to bed."

"All right, thank you," Talan said. She looked over at Trenlei. "Captain, when we first discovered the virus and determined who can contract it, we ran a number of simulations on its effects. In both humans and Betazoids, it is fatal if untreated after five days."

Kira felt as if her stomach had turned to stone. Dax had said it would take five or six days before the station even received their distress signal. She told Trenlei as much. The captain nodded grimly, an expression that also reminded Kira of herself, and gestured to the transporter pad.

"Then let's get to work," she said.

They beamed back to the site where Kira had appeared. The field crew stopped working when they arrived, at the captain's gesture, and joined the four women. Kira noticed some of them were wearing uniforms like Trenlei's, which must be Starfleet uniforms, although they were nothing like the uniforms she was used to seeing on the station. The torso of Trenlei's jacket was the standard command red, but the sleeves were white, with a red ring around each one at the cuff. The plants were black, with a thin red stripe running down the outside of each leg. The other Starfleet officers there had uniforms with blue in place of the red; obviously the colour coding hadn't changed.

Trenlei explained the situation to them, elaborating on the information Massai had probably already provided. Kira could tell by the faces that they were all interested, but no one asked her anything, and she was grateful. She had no desire to get into the specifics of her own time, especially not with work to be done.

"Let's try the obvious," Holl suggested. "Major, can you show us exactly where you fell?"

"Yes," Kira said and led them up the hill. She followed the path from memory, then spotted the place where scuffs in the dirt told her she'd fallen on this side of the temporal anomaly. Holl stepped down carefully, not quite to the level where Kira had slipped, and began scanning the area.

"I am picking up the same unusual readings here as the rest of the area, but they seem to be a bit stronger here." She eased herself down another step to stand where Kira had fallen. She scanned the area again, then shook her head. "They don't seem strong enough to move someone through time, though. But since that's what they did, perhaps we should test it." She took another, smaller tricorder from her belt and flipped it open. "I'm going to program this one with a carrier signal that should cut through the anomaly. If it works, we may be able to force a stable opening for the time being."

Holl finished calibrating the instrument, then set it down on the ground. She pushed it carefully forward with her foot to the spot Kira had indicated.

Nothing happened.

"I didn't think that would work," Holl said. "I'm going to try activating the anomaly and see if I can get it to concentrate itself in this area." She reached up and tapped her neck behind her ear. "Holl to Massai. Get Rolsen and Lnev and come up here. I'm going to need your help."

"Understood," Massai replied. "We're on our way."

"Is there anything I can do to help?" Kira asked.

Holl looked up at her.

"Are you a scientist?" she asked.

"No. An administrator."

"Then I'm afraid not."

Kira nodded, feeling frustrated and useless. She hated leaving the work in the hands of others, even if they were experts. The lives of two of her crew members and friends were at stake here, and she could do nothing. Trenlei must have sensed something, or have been alerted telepathically by Holl, because the captain gestured to Kira and the healer.

"Come on," she said. "Let's go see what else we can learn."

* * *

By the end of the day, Kira was beginning to suspect that Trenlei wasn't related to her, and that she wasn't a Bajoran at all. They hadn't made any progress, and Kira was doing her best to keep a lid on her impatience, but Trenlei didn't seem phased at all. She was concerned and knew they were pressed for time, but she had a calmness about her that baffled Kira, and made her slightly envious.

The worked until just before sunset, then the captain called a halt to everything. With a practiced efficiency, the crew packed up their gear and gathered into a group. Kira joined them reluctantly; she had no desire to go back to the city. She wanted to keep working, for someone to figure out how to open this temporal anomaly. Dax was stuck back there with two sick crew mates who were going to die if no one from this time could get through to them.

They beamed back to Negava, and Renoura, who had rejoined the crew several hours before, took Kira to an apartment building a few blocks from Trenlei's office.

"It's mostly for visiting Starfleet officers and Federation officials or scientists," he said. "But there aren't very many people staying here now. Your quarters are on the fourth floor, unit three." He gave her a small access card. "This will let you in. The computer will prompt you for your name and a pass code to use while you're here."

Kira nodded and thanked him, taking the card.

"Good night, Major," he said, then tapped his neck behind his ear and requested a transport. A moment later, he was gone, and Kira was left standing by herself. She turned and headed into the building, using the access card to get inside, and took the lift up to her assigned quarters.

The suite was spacious, much larger than what she was used to on DS9 and it seemed to her to be a waste of space. Despite its large size, it had the empty feeling of a place that no one lived in for long. The layout was a standard one, she suspected. She entered into the livingroom, and on her left was a small hallway that led to the bedroom, a study, and a bathroom, and on the right was the dining room. For one person, or even two, it seemed excessive.

The computer asked for her name and a pass code, which Kira provided without really thinking. There was food waiting for her, fresh fruits and vegetables. Kira took the plate and ordered a Bajoran dinner from the replicator in the dining room. She carried both plates into the bedroom and sat down on the large bed, eating mechanically. It had been a long day and she was tired, aggravated, afraid, and dirty. Not a far cry from how she'd ended her days most of her life, except now the fear wasn't fear about the Cardassians, but about not being able to help O'Brien and Bashir and being stuck here. She ate quickly, barely tasting anything, even the alien fruits and vegetables. Then she had a short sonic shower and changed into the pajamas that had been provided for her. They seemed very standard as well, made from a light natural fabric, dyed a uniform dark blue. She ordered herself a tea from the replicator in the bedroom, then sat back down on the bed. There was a computer screen on the wall beside the bed and she activated it.

"Computer, display an image of this planet," she said.

"Specify format," the computer replied. "Two dimensional display or holographic projection."

"Two dimensional display."

A map appeared on the screen, in the shape of two circles joined together. There appeared to be three major continents and two minor ones. Two of the three major continents were in the southern hemisphere, although the northern most of the two did cross the equator. The third straddled the north pole. Of the two minor continent, the one in the southern hemisphere was a long, thin island about half way between the equator and the south pole. The other was a slight larger, irregularly shaped land mass just north of the equator.

"Identify this planet," Kira said.

"Plathyn," the computer replied.

"Display all settlements."

Red dots began cropping up across the map; Kira noted that there seemed to be at least one settlement per continent. Trenlei had said that Plathyn had been colonized about ninety years ago and Negava established seventy-six years ago. It must have been an intense colonization process for that many towns or cities to exist already.

"Identify the city Negava."

One of the two settlements on the southern most major continent turned blue.

"Isolate and display the area surrounding Negava in a twenty kilometer radius."

The display zoomed in and Kira leaned forward slightly.

"Narrow the radius to ten kilometers."

The image grew larger and Kira spotted the lake in the hills.

"Put the image on a grid," she said.

The computer obliged her and the grid popped up. Kira nodded to herself.

"Computer, determine the distance between the lake in grid ee-six and Negava."

"Distance is eight-point-nine-three kilometers."

"Display off," Kira said and the screen went blank. She sighed, finishing her tea and climbed under the covers. "Lights off."

The room was plunged into darkness, but it slowly became punctuated by the light of one of Plathyn's two moons and the lights from the city. Kira got up and drew the curtains, but not before lingering by the window for a moment, gazing at the city surrounding her. Then she crawled back under the covers, lay on her back, and tried to sleep.


	5. Chapter 5

Jadzia Dax woke up in the middle of the night and rolled away from the wall onto her back. She lay still for a moment, wondering what had awoken her. Then she heard the faint noises coming from the front of the shuttle. With a sigh, she flipped off her covers, pulled socks onto her feet and padded into the cockpit. Bashir was sitting at a console, staring blankly at it. He didn't look up when she came in, which alarmed her slightly, because she had long ago noticed that Bashir had excellent hearing.

"Julian," she said gently and he raised his head, meeting her eyes. His face was nearly white now. "You should be asleep."

"I couldn't sleep," he muttered.

"Why not?"

"I had to sedate Miles. His fever is getting higher, and he was in pain."

"So are you," Dax said. It was obvious from the hunched position of his shoulders and the expression on his face.

He sighed heavily, then closed his eyes as if breathing had been an effort.

"If I don't figure out a way to treat this, we're going to die," he said.

"You don't know that," Dax replied.

"Yes, I do," he said. "This virus is adapting itself too quickly for our immune systems to combat it."

"We'll get you off this planet before anything happens," Dax said, promising herself as well. Bashir only gave her a tired look and turned back to the console. Dax sighed, reaching past him and shut the console off.

"You're about to pass out," she said. "Julian, you need to sleep."

He reached to turn the power back on and Dax caught his hand, pulling it aside.

"Computer, cut the power to the cockpit," she said and they were instantly plunged into darkness.

"Jadzia–"

"Don't Jadzia me," she said firmly. "You can work on this in the morning once you've slept."

"No," he said slowly and she realized he was looking past her, out the windows. "Look."

She followed his gaze with a frown and saw something flickering in the night outside. She moved carefully between the seats and leaned over the helm, peering out into the darkness. Traces of light flashed up and down the hills, across the small valley, rippling like water. She gasped as she watched the light change from a pale yellow into a vibrant purple then back again as it glanced down the slope of a hill and across the valley floor.

"What is it?" Bashir asked.

"I'm not sure," Dax replied. "I'm going outside to get a better look and see if I can get a tricorder reading."

"I'm coming with you."

"Julian–"

"Don't Julian me," he said, echoing her earlier words. "I'm coming." He had found strength somewhere to add firmness to his words. Dax relented, knowing she wouldn't win and he would just follow her outside, even if she ordered him not to.

She put one arm around his torso, under his shoulders, and Bashir put an arm around her shoulders for support. He wasn't shivering anymore. If anything, he seemed to be uncomfortably hot, and Dax was wary of taking him outside. She made him put a blanket around his shoulders and he didn't protest, which she took to be a bad sign. Doctors rarely made good patients and Bashir was notorious for arguing his health.

They left the shuttle and stood outside, in front of the presently incapacitated ship, watching the lights flicker across the landscape. Dax flipped open her tricorder, one-handed, and scanned the area.

"I'm getting the same readings I was before," she said.

"Are they any stronger?" Bashir asked.

"Yes, but not much." She reached up and tapped her combadge. "Dax to Kira."

There was no reply. Dax hadn't really been expecting one. She turned back to her tricorder. At least she could get a detailed analysis of the energy patterns now, as well as the light patterns. Perhaps there was some new information contained in this display that might help her locate the missing major.

As much as she wanted to stay outside and examine this phenomenon, she knew she needed to sleep, and so did Bashir. He gave a token protest when she led him back inside the shuttle, but let her put him back to bed. She turned to leave, but Bashir snagged her hand. Dax turned back to him, crouching down beside the two mattresses she'd piled on the floor for him.

"What is it?" she asked.

"I'm glad you're my friend," he replied.

Dax smiled in the darkness, then leaned over to kiss his forehead, brushing his damp hair away with her palm.

"And I'm glad you're mine, Julian," she replied. "Get some rest."

"Yes, sir," he said, and she heard the faintest of smiles in his voice.

She stayed with him a few moments until he was asleep again, then returned to her own bunk only to lie victim to insomnia as she thought of Kira's abrupt disappearance and the very real fact that she could lose two more of her friends if no one got their message soon.

* * *

Kira awoke in the middle of the night. For a moment, she lay still on the strange bed with no recollection of where she was or how she'd arrived there. Then the memories came back and she rolled onto her side with a sigh. The bed was bigger than she was used to, and the room felt different. Her quarters on the station had become her home and it was only now that she realized how much her life had changed and how she accustomed to it she had become. Not even five years ago she'd been fighting the Cardassians, struggling each day to drive them from her home. Then it had happened and she'd been shipped off to an old Cardassian station to work with a Starfleet crew. Somewhere along the line, a free Bajor, a stable life, and deep, secure friendships with aliens had become commonplace. If someone had told her five years ago that she'd be here now, missing an arrogant human doctor, an amiable human engineer and a fun-loving Trill scientist, she'd have called them crazy.

If they'd told her she'd be stuck two hundred years in the future, she'd really have thought them insane. She felt a little off balance now herself, being ripped from the life she'd gotten used to over the past four years. This wasn't her world; it belonged to Trenlei Kira. Here, there was no one she knew. No Dax, no Bashir, no O'Brien. Not even the Emissary. At least, probably not. She felt a longing for home she'd never known she could ever feel. Kira had no idea she'd developed the ability to miss the station, with its stark Cardassian architecture, its problems and its chaos. She even missed Quark. That was unnerving.

She rolled onto her other side, her back to the window. For a few minutes, she stared blankly into the darkness, then closed her eyes and willed herself back to sleep. That was one aspect of her old life she hadn't forgotten at least.

* * *

The next morning, Kira got up and dressed in her Bajoran uniform. She had just finished eating a replicated breakfast, and appreciating how much more advanced replicator technology had become, when Holl contacted her via the comscreen on her wall to let Kira know they would be heading back to the site. She was sending Renoura, she said, and sure enough, he was there ten minutes later. They beamed back to the building they'd been in the day before. The crew was gathering again, along with Trenlei and Talan. In addition, there was a human woman about Kira's age talking with Toll and Trenlei. The major recognized human ethnicities enough now to know that the woman was of Asian decent. She had the same colour of skin as did Keiko O'Brien, the same dark hair and dark eyes. She was short, and her manner reminded Kira of no one so much as Dax. She appeared to have the same mixture of energy and decorum, evident even in her stance.

"Major," Trenlei said, waving her ancestor over. Kira joined them and the new arrival extended her hand. "Major, this is Professor Emily Magellan. She's one of the foremost scientists on this planet and an expert in temporal anomalies. She came down from Fenth last night to help us. Professor, this is Major Kira Nerys, our visitor from the past."

"Professor," Kira said, shaking the woman's hand.

"Major, good to meet you."

"Is it?" Kira asked.

"The scientific community here has always suspected that this planet has temporal anomalies. You are our proof."

"I just want to get back to my own time," Kira said frankly.

"And I intend to help you do that," Magellan replied.

"All right, let's go," Trenlei said, raising her voice so that everyone around her could hear her. In an order probably born of habit, several members of the team climbed onto the transporter pad. Holl tapped her neck and requested transport to their site. Kira had no idea where the transporter controllers were; they weren't visible, but they were obviously familiar with where Holl and her crew wanted to go. They vanished and Trenlei gestured to the rest of them to step up. Kira climbed onto the transporter pad beside her descendant and, a moment later, was standing back in the grass near the foot of the hill. The crew members who had arrived before her were already setting up their equipment. Holl and Anouar came over to join them.

"Major, I'd like to show Professor Magellan where you came through the anomaly," Holl said.

"All right," Kira agreed. Anouar left to help Renoura and the rest of the team with the equipment. Kira led Holl, Magellan, Trenlei and Talan up the hill. Her original fall marks were slightly obscured by footprints made by the team the previous day.

"Just there," she said, pointing to the spot. Magellan took out a tricorder, flipped it open and stepped down.

"Careful," Holl warned. "It's steeper than it looks."

Magellan nodded, secured her footing, and extended her arm in a slow circle, the tricorder beeping as she moved.

Halfway through her arm's arc, her hand vanished up to the wrist. With a collective gasp from the group, save for Talan, Magellan pulled her arm back sharply, then looked up at Holl, shock written on her face.

"We didn't have any results like that," the Betazoid said.

Very carefully, Magellan extended her hand again. Again, it vanished.

"Stay there!" Holl said. "I want to get a reading of exactly where that is."

Magellan complied as the other scientist took out her own tricorder and began taking readings.

"It appears to begin at your wrist and extend in a fifty centimeter diameter," she said.

"Major," Trenlei said, gesturing to Kira. Kira nodded and stepped down carefully next to Magellan. She reached her hand out toward the other woman's, but nothing happened. It stayed visible, even next to where Magellan's hand was presumably floating, disembodied, in the past. Kira turned to look up at Holl, who stepped down beside them and tried to reach through as well. Only Magellan's hand went through the anomaly.

"Maybe we'd need to be right where she's standing," Holl said. She and the human switched places, but got the same results; Magellan's hand vanished but Holl's did not.

"Presumably, there's something about you that brought you here, Major," Magellan said. "And something about me that would allow me to go back there."

"But if you did, you might get stuck," Holl pointed out. "As Major Kira seems to be stuck here."

The human scientist nodded.

"What if we programed my tricorder with a message? Are any of the members of your crew scientists, Major?"

"Dax is. And she's a joined Trill. She's got three hundred years of problem solving experience behind her."

"Good," Magellan said. "We could use that. I can program my tricorder to send out a signal to your shuttle. Healer Talan, we could send the vaccine back as well. Will it work on infected humans?"

"I believe so," the Vulcan replied. "We conducted tests using a live virus on microbes, and the results were all positive."

"We can include instructions on the vaccine's administration on the tricorder. Captain Kira tells me one of your crew members is a doctor?"

Kira nodded.

"Good. Talan, can this Dax oversee the treatment until the doctor is well enough to take over?"

"If she can follow clear instructions then she should be sufficient," Talan replied.

"She can," Kira confirmed.

"Good," Trenlei said. "Let's get on it. Major, I think it would be best if you recorded a personal message to Dax as well, so she knows that you are safe and that this isn't a hoax."

Kira felt relief wash through her at the prospect of being able to contact Dax again, even if it wasn't in person.

"Of course," she said. The three of them stepped up to Trenlei and Talan's level again and began working on the message.

* * *

Dax was hard at work on the engines when the shuttle's computer alerted her to the fact that she had an incoming message. She almost gave herself a concussion scrambling from her access hatch. In her mind, she heard the ticking of the seconds as they slipped away, taking Bashir and O'Brien's lives with them. Rubbing her hands on her pants, she hurried into the cockpit and hit the receive commands on the com display. Kira's voice washed through the cockpit, making Dax's breath catch in shock.

"Jadzia, this is Nerys. I'm all right, but this is just a recording. I hope you get this. I know by now you've figured out that I'm missing. I traveled through time thanks to an anomaly in the hills near that small lake. I'm two hundred years in the future, and I'm working with some scientists. We've managed to make a small break in the anomaly, but only one of the scientists seems to be able to activate it, and if we send her through, she might get stuck back there like I am here. If you go up the hill toward the lake, you'll find a tricorder and four hyposprays containing a vaccine for the virus that's made Julian and Miles sick. The tricorder has instructions on how to administer the treatment. It also has all the information Professor Taima Holl and her team, including Professor Emily Magellan, have collected on the anomaly. Hopefully, working together, we can get it open long enough for me to come back through. I'm all right for now and safe. Kira out."

Dax grabbed a tricorder of her own and rushed from the shuttle, running up the hill. She was glad she'd decided to move the shuttle; the distance was less than a hundred meters, not a full kilometer. She found the tricorder and the hyposprays just as Kira had indicated and felt her heart swell with relief. She tapped her combadge, hoping against hope that it would work.

"Dax to Kira."

There was no reply and Dax held back a curse, scooping up the equipment and running back to the shuttle. Inside, she hurried into the mens' cabin, tossed her own tricorder on the small table and flipped open the odd looking one. There was a set of detailed instructions on administering the vaccine. Dax could tell by the clarity and the tone that the doctor who had sent them was Vulcan. That was a relief; there would be no overlooked instructions, nothing that hadn't been covered.

She crouched down beside O'Brien, who was still sedated, and very carefully read the instructions. Then she picked up one of the hyposprays with a red label. These, she understood, were vaccines developed for those that had been infected. The remaining two hyposprays were booster shots to be given once the treatment had taken hold.

She pressed the hypospray to O'Brien's neck and injected the vaccine. Then she grabbed the other red labeled hypospray and turned to Bashir. He was sleeping restlessly under a pile of blankets. Dax injected him as well and he groaned, opening his eyes with some effort.

"It's a vaccine," Dax whispered. "Your fever should start to drop within half an hour, and you should be feeling better within about three."

"How–" Bashir started to ask, his voice strained.

"I'll explain later. Go back to sleep for now."

He complied and Dax set the two empty hyposprays on the far end of the table. She left the room, taking the two tricorders with her, and headed to the cockpit. There, she downloaded the information Kira had sent across and began reviewing it.

Two hours later, she rose to check on her patients only to find Bashir up and about, kneeling on the floor beside O'Brien's bed, taking readings of his vital signs. O'Brien was awake, too, and sitting propped against two pillows. They looked up when Dax came in and she was instantly relieved to see they could both focus on her again. They still didn't look well; O'Brien's face was flushed and Bashir was paler than normal, and they both smelled of sweat and illness, but they were awake and aware.

"My temperature is thirty-seven-point-two," Bashir said. "It's a bit higher than normal for me, but definitely acceptable. Miles is still a bit feverish, but barely. What did you give us?"

Dax explained the situation to them, then provided Bashir with the medical instructions from the tricorder. He read them over and appeared impressed.

"Now what?" O'Brien asked.

Dax sighed.

"I've been trying to figure out a way to break through the temporal anomaly and at least contact Kira, but I haven't been able to yet. I assume the scientists in the future are working on the same thing, but only one of them can actually open a path in the anomaly and no one else can cross through."

"Kira got there somehow," Bashir said. "There must be a way to bring her back."

"We just haven't found it yet," Dax agreed. "I'm going to keep working on it. Both of you still need to rest and get your strength back."

"What we each really need is a shower," Bashir said. "And a change of clothes."

"That, too," Dax agreed. Bashir pushed himself to his feet and Dax noted that his movements were steady again, and he wasn't shivering or sweating anymore.

"I'll take over as doctor again," he told her with a smile. Dax grinned back.

"Good. I'll be working on this anomaly if you need me."

She returned to the cockpit and had managed half an hour's work before the communications array signaled another incoming message. Dax hit the receive commands and Kira's voice once again flooded the cabin.

"Kira to Dax. By now, you should have been able to administer the treatment to Bashir and O'Brien. Talan says they should be on the mend now. We haven't had any more luck on this side, and I assume you haven't had any, either. I want you to come to the place where I went through the anomaly in half an hour, at fifteen hundred forty-five hours. We've left another tricorder with only this message on it. In half an hour, we're going to see if you can actually see Professor Magellan if she puts her hand through the anomaly. Maybe if we have a link to your time, I could make it back through. Kira out."

Bashir hurried in as the communications ended. He had obviously showered, shaved, and changed his uniform. He looked much better now, and smelled better, too.

"Was that Kira?" he asked.

"A message sent by a tricorder like last time," Dax said, shaking her head.

"I administered the last of the treatment," Bashir said. "According to Healer Talan, this will protect Miles and I permanently."

"Good," Dax said. "How long until he can begin work on the engines?"

"I want him to rest until at least this evening," Bashir said.

"Then I want you to do the same," Dax told him. "But I would like your permission for Miles to help me in half an hour when Kira wants me at the time travel site."

Bashir nodded.

"As long as he doesn't work too hard and you let me come with him to monitor his condition."

"Agreed," Dax said.

"I'll go replicate him a hat and let him know."

"I'm going to keep analyzing the data the scientists sent through. Maybe I can come up with something before we leave."

She could not. Twenty minutes later, as O'Brien emerged from his cabin, showered and dressed in a fresh uniform, Dax had made no progress. She rose when O'Brien came in, smiling at him.

"It's good to see you back on your feet again, Chief."

"It's good to be out of that bed," O'Brien said with a grin. "What are we going to try?"

Dax replayed the message Kira had sent, then filled him in on her lack of progress with the data provided to her. She shouldered a pack with water, food and her equipment in it as Bashir gave O'Brien his hat. The doctor put on his own and gave Dax a pointed look until she donned hers as well. They set out up the hill. Once they'd reached the spot, Dax took her equipment from the pack and gave the bag to Bashir. He pulled out a water ration and handed it to O'Brien.

"We all need to keep hydrated, but you and I especially," he said. "But don't drink too quickly. We haven't eaten much in the past few days."

O'Brien nodded and took the water ration, tearing it open and sipping it. Bashir handed him a bland field ration as well. He took one for himself and munched on it as Dax and O'Brien began scanning the area.

"We still have three minutes before Kira wanted us out here," Dax said. "I'm getting the same readings as before."

"What about those lights we saw last night?" Bashir asked.

"There was still no difference in the readings," Dax said. "For all I know, it could be that we can actually see the energy fluctuations at night."

O'Brien opened his ration and ate it slowly while they waited. Dax kept scanning the area, hoping for some tiny change in the energy readings that might indicate a break in the temporal anomaly. Suddenly, the readings right in front of her spiked and a hand appeared about one hundred and twenty centimeters above the ground. All three of them started and Dax scanned it quickly.

"Human female," she said.

"I can hear you!" a woman's voice said from the other side. "Can you hear me?"

"Yes!" Dax said. "Who are you?"

"Professor Emily Magellan. Who are you?"

"Lieutenant Commander Jadzia Dax," she replied. "Is Nerys there?"

There was a moment of silence, then Kira's voice came through the anomaly:

"Jadzia?"

Dax saw her relief reflected on the faces of her crew mates.

"Nerys, thank god. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine. We haven't made any progress, though."

"Neither have I," Dax sighed.

"Try coming through yourself, Commander," Magellan said.

Carefully, Dax stepped forward and stretched her hand out toward the other woman's. Instead of vanishing, she simply reached past Magellan's hand. With a sigh, she shook her head.

"Nothing," she said. O'Brien moved down to stand beside her, scanning Magellan's hand and the area around it.

"The time line is distorted around her hand," he said. "But it's localized right here." He reached out with his left hand toward the future scientist's. As soon as his hand passed her fingertips, it vanished.


	6. Chapter 6

Dax heard their gasps echoed on the other side of the rift.

"Chief!" Kira said at the same time as Dax said: "Don't move!"

O'Brien froze. Out of the corner of her eye, Dax saw Bashir get up and move carefully toward them. She glanced at him and saw shock written all over his face, glinting from his wide eyes. She scanned the anomaly; it was more active now than it had been when only Magellan had been activating it.

"Try it now, Kira!" Dax called through.

"Take my hand," O'Brien said. He nodded a moment later, then pulled his hand back. A sharp Bajoran curse came from the other side and O'Brien returned fully to the present, without Kira.

Dax could hear a quick conversation on the other side, but she couldn't catch the words. Presumably, whoever was talking was standing far enough back from the anomaly that their words weren't traveling clearly through the rift.

"We have an idea," a new voice said then, and Dax heard the undertones of authority. It was a voice used to command. "Chief O'Brien, can you put your hand back through the temporal rift?"

O'Brien glanced at Dax, who nodded. He moved his hand back through. Magellan's hand was still there, although somewhat lower, as if her arm was getting tired. There were a few minutes in which nothing happened on their side, then Magellan said:

"I think we've got it. Chief O'Brien, it appears I'm related to you. If our readings are reliable, you're my great-great grandfather. The woman who was just speaking to you is Captain Kira Trenlei. She's your Major Kira's great granddaughter."

O'Brien's eyes widened in shock and Dax raised her eyebrows.

"If our theory is right, Major Kira was able to pass through because of Captain Kira's presence here. I am able to pass through because of your presence there, Chief. And vice versa."

"Why would it be linked biologically?" Bashir asked.

"We'll have to study that," Magellan replied. "Chief, pull you hand back and take mine."

O'Brien complied, grasping the small hand that seemed to be hovering in mid air.

"I'm going to pull gently, but I'm not going to pull you through," Magellan said.

"Understood," O'Brien replied.

Dax watched as Magellan's wrist and the bottom of her hand vanished and O'Brien's hand edged toward the anomaly. Suddenly, part of the scene before her vanished and there were several people standing on the hill, slightly hazy, as if seen from a great distance. Dax could make out Magellan the best: a young woman with pale brown skin and jet black hair. Behind her was a Bajoran woman in what was probably a Starfleet uniform, Kira, another woman who looked human, and a Vulcan. Magellan looked over her shoulder toward Kira.

"Try it now, Major. Carefully."

Dax stepped forward, scanning the whole time as Kira approached the anomaly. The major hesitated, then carefully put one foot in front of her, across the threshold. It appeared in front of Dax, clearly. Kira eased herself the rest of the way through, then stood still for a moment, looking surprised that it had worked.

"Nerys," Dax said and the major smiled.

"Jadzia, thank the Prophets."

They embraced, then Kira hugged Bashir.

"You can let go now, Chief," Kira said.

"If I do that, we'll lose the break in the time line," O'Brien replied.

"We'll keep studying it from this side," Magellan assured him. "You don't belong on this planet. You need to go home."

"She's right, Chief," Kira said.

O'Brien nodded, then turned to the slightly hazy image of his great-great granddaughter.

"It was good to meet you," he said with a grin.

"You, too. Make sure you take care of yourself."

His grin widened and he nodded. Kira turned to give a nod to the other Kira, who nodded in return. Then O'Brien and Magellan loosened their hold, pulled their hands back and the scene across two hundred years vanished. The hill was empty of all but the four of them again. For a moment, there was only silence, then Kira stepped up toward the path she and Bashir had made to get to the lake. She sat down in the grass and Bashir knelt beside her, scanning her with his medical tricorder.

"Looks like you're all right," he said. "What was it like meeting your great granddaughter?"

"Very strange," Kira said. "I wonder who her great grandfather is?"

Dax grinned.

"You'll find out in good time," she assured the major, who smiled back.

"I suppose so," Kira agreed. Bashir helped her to her feet again. "Have you fixed the engines yet?" she asked.

"Not yet," Dax replied.

"Then let's get back to work on that," she said. "Even if my great granddaughter chooses to live here, I'd rather not be stuck here for the rest of my life."

"Hear, hear," O'Brien agreed.

"I still want you to take it easy for the rest of the day, Chief," Bashir said as they started down the hill toward the shuttle. "Your body still needs to recover."

O'Brien nodded in agreement and Dax saw Bashir give him an evaluating look. She suspected the doctor would be keeping a close eye on the engineer that afternoon, making sure his orders were followed. She knew it frustrated Bashir to no end when people were dismissive about their health

The computer was signaling an incoming message when they stepped into the shuttle and the four of them raced into the cockpit. Dax put the message through quickly and an unfamiliar voice filled the room.

"This is the Vulcan freighter _Nadeak_ to the Federation shuttle _Rio Grande_. Do you read me, _Rio Grande_?"

There was relief in Kira's voice when she answered:

"This is Major Kira Nerys of Deep Space Nine. We read you, _Nadeak._"

"Are you still in need of assistance?"

"Yes, we are. Our engines are off line."

"Acknowledged. I will send down two of my engineers to assist you. _Nadeak_ out."

* * *

By late that evening, they had the engines back on line. The Vulcan engineers remained on board until the shuttle had cleared the atmosphere and gone to impulse. Then they beamed back to their own ship, which returned to its original course. Dax set a course back to the station and sent a message through alerting them that they were well and on their way home. Bashir came in balancing raktajinos on a tray and distributed them to everyone. He did another medical scan of both himself and O'Brien to ensure they were all right, then another one of Kira to see if the temporal anomaly had affected her in any way. It appeared it hadn't.

"Strange, isn't it, Major?" O'Brien asked as they left the system behind them.

Kira gave a rueful smile.

"It is," she agreed.

"I would love to have known more about Professor Magellan," the chief said.

"Be glad you don't," Dax advised. "Temporal Investigations will be breathing down our necks as it is. The less we know, the better."

"It's good enough just to know they'll be out there, someday," Kira agreed. "I'm happy to leave their lives to them and go home."

Dax raised her mug and the rest of them did likewise, clinking the rims together gently as the shuttle sped back toward Deep Space Nine, stars and time streaking by through the blackness of space.


End file.
